A common problem encountered by trucks carrying oversized loads is that their journey along a road may be obstructed by an overhead electrified cable or other type of aerial cable. The standard practices for overcoming this problem are to lift the cable using hydraulic lifting equipment (ie. a “cherry picker”) or to manually lift and hold the cable with hand-held “lift sticks”. Two or more cherry pickers and operators may be needed to lift and hold a cable in the lifted position until the oversized load has passed beneath the cable. In situations where there are multiple aerial cables, the number of operators and cherry pickers needed to lift the cables will typically increase.
Some of the disadvantages of the above practices are: that they may involve an operator physically lifting and holding a cable for an extended period of time and the cable may weigh as much as 30 kg; since a cherry picker is typically operated from within a bucket of the cherry picker, the operator may be in dangerously close proximity of an electrified cable; and, the practices may be costly and time consuming, particularly when many operators and cherry pickers are required.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a portable apparatus and method for lifting aerial cables that minimises or overcomes at least one of the disadvantages referred to above, or to provide the public with a useful or commercial choice.